Hybrid renewable energy harvesting device for street lightning in the Kingdom of Bahrain

The need for an affordable and reliable power supply for traffic monitoring systems and street lightening remains demanding and is a challenge. A gust of wind when a car rush could be harvested into renewable energy as well as the other available ambient energy sources. This study aims to develop a sustainable alternative solution of on-site energy to this critical challenge, by harvesting the energy from the road using a smart device mechanism utilizing car passing wind and solar energy. Hence, a hybrid renewable energy device for energy generation to supply King Fahad Causeway Street lights in the Kingdom of Bahrain was proposed in this study. The proposed design of the device included a vertical axis wind turbine to utilize the air coming from the passing cars on the causeway and a solar system to convert the solar radiation into electricity to maximize the output power since the Kingdom of Bahrain has a great potential of solar energy. Simulations are carried out using two different software’s (QBlade and PVsyst) to validate the theoretically calculated results. The total power generated by the device was approximately determined to be 10 kWh/day. The total energy output and the percentage error between the theoretical and simulation results were calculated, they ranged between 19% to 28%. This study reveals the effectiveness of the proposed device for on-site sources of energy for traffic monitoring systems and streets lighting, the device could be also implemented in other areas in the cities where there is rabid and constant vehicle traffic.